Everyone Should Upskill and Reskill Their Career
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
I ran across this article talking about how 9 in 10 older workers are upskilling to stay competitive. It’s an interesting read regardless of your age. And that’s my point. Everyone should be thinking about upskilling and reskilling their career. Not just older workers.
As a reminder, upskilling is the process of acquiring new skills for your current role. For example, a technology professional learning a new software program is upskilling. There’s also reskilling. That’s when you’re learning something new for a future role or responsibility. An example might be an HR coordinator learning payroll as part of a cross-training initiative.
Individuals could benefit from doing a self-assessment of their skills along with their future career goals. Are there any skills gaps to address? The answer is probably “yes”. Then put some plans in place to address them. Here are some resources that could be helpful:
- Company training programs – Check out what the company offers. Ask if you can sign up for a training class. Get your manager’s support for attending.
- LinkedIn Learning – If you have a library card (which is free), see if your local library offers LinkedIn Learning. Many do – and this would give you access to hundreds of professional development sessions.
- Start your own career library – Put together a list of the business books you’d like to read and find a way to get them. It could be via the library. You could also look for library sales, where you can get books inexpensively.
- Volunteer – Depending on the skills you’re trying to work on, consider volunteering to gain hands on experience. It’s also great for relationship building and networking.
- Join a mentoring program – It might be beneficial to be a mentor or get mentoring advice. Don’t think of mentoring as an age-related activity as in “older people mentoring younger people”. It’s about sharing experiences.
There’s an old saying that the best time to look for a new job is when you have a job. We could rework the saying to read “the best time to develop your career is when you don’t have to”. It can be so much more fun to learn and upskill our careers without any added job search pressure.
The world of work is changing. And part of that is incredibly exciting. But it means we need to work on our skills to remain relevant. Finding ways to learn is important. Let me add – finding inexpensive ways to learn is even better. Now is a great time to start trying out some of these activities and seeing what they can do for you and your career.
Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of London, England
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